


Summer Daze

by hopealop3



Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Suicide mention, hiyoris in the daze i swear she just doesnt know it, mild self-deprication and self-harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28123974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopealop3/pseuds/hopealop3
Summary: Finally, the time loop that trapped Hiyori and Hibiya had broken, they were free and could go back to Kenjirou's house, never to cross a street again. However, Hiyori doesn't wake up where she expected and Hibiya is nowhere to be found.(Hiyori gets trapped in the daze: the realization)
Relationships: Amamiya Hibiya & Asahina Hiyori, Asahina Hiyori & Tateyama Ayano, hibihiyo is implied but its not blatant enough for me to tag it
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Summer Daze

**Author's Note:**

> fuck you fuck you *writes in hiyori's pov again*
> 
> (written december 15th, 2020. edited by me, beta read (and a few edits made) by melon-official and tookbackthefalls and on tumblr. special shoutout to ao3 user sunset_yesterday for making characterization suggestions as i wrote hiyori)

Hiyori sat in the seat of a creaky swing, staring at her feet. Her hands were red from the rust of the metal chains. If it were any other day, she wouldn’t have even gotten close to touching the grimy things, but today was different. She gripped the chains with all she had, bitter and with pure hate. Her brow and neck were uncomfortably wet from the heat of the August day, the haze from the sun making her dark hair hot to the touch.

Hibiya was sat on the swing beside her. He spoke with a soft sort of nervousness, saying the same lines he did yesterday and the day before. If she wanted, Hiyori could say them right back, the same shake and the same timbre. She strained to hear it over the chirping of cicadas and the cawing of crows. Anything to drown it all out, to hear his voice.

She waited for the cue. The same question he asked every time. The one that marked today’s end.

The chains of the swing beside her rattled as Hibiya shifted in his seat. His arm reaching for the same place as always and his hand just as shaky.

“What do you think?” He asked. It was the question Hiyori found herself dreading every morning. “Do you like it?”

“No.” Hiyori couldn’t help but lace her reply with some sort of venom. Not out of malice, of course, but rather, she couldn’t keep her feelings in when it came to the topic at hand. 

“I kind of hate summer.” 

She let go of the swing’s chains, letting out a deep sigh, trying to force her anxieties to calm. They annoyed her and did nothing good, yet she could never truly get rid of them. She turned towards Hibiya, looking at him with sadness and exhaustion in her eyes. Deep down she knew it was something no 12-year-old deserved to have.

“Do you wanna go home?” She asked, holding her hand out. It was still stained red. 

Hibiya's eyes widened and she found his mouth open in a small yet silent gasp. She waited for what she assumed was the silent turning of cogs in his head. She guessed trying to comprehend such an offer would be hard for him. His hand shook as it reached out to grab her own. Somehow he was just as embarrassing as he was endearing. 

“S-sure…” He answered, sounding a bit nervous. 

She locked fingers with him and stood up, her hands already sweaty, smearing the rust onto his. She waited for him to get off his swing. He still looked a bit surprised, from awe she assumed. 

She turned around swiftly and began to drag Hibiya out of the park, almost stomping against the pavement. She silently cursed as the same black cat as always joined them at their feet, as the noise of the summer’s hell grew into a crescendo around them. The mocking noise of cicadas, crows, and honking horns. The stupid, horrible sounds of beeping machinery and the rush of traffic. The awful haunting melody of wind chimes. The desperate sound of two pairs of sandals slapping faster and faster against the sidewalk.

She swore she was going to be sick.

“Hiyori!” Hibiya’s voice was labored. She was impressed she could hear it at all. “Why are we running?” He sounded more tired than confused, panting between every word or so. She was genuinely impressed the scrawny boy was able to keep pace with her at all.

She answered between breaths, her eyes darting around the scene. She had to know when it would come, she had to know where it was coming from. She was so terrified it was starting to make her angry. 

“To get home faster!” 

She wasn’t lying. However, it wasn’t the full truth, either.

She felt Hibiya tug on her hand and she turned around. He was looking up silently, standing in place, staring at something above them. 

Hiyori skidded to a stop, tripping over her sandals and falling over. His hand was ripped forcefully out of her’s, red smearing onto her arm. 

Fuck! This wasn’t fair! She had a plan this time! It wasn’t fucking fair!

She dared to look up at whatever horror was waiting for them. A dozen metal support beams were falling from a crane, whatever contraption had been holding them together flailing right behind them. 

She grit her teeth and pushed herself off the floor, launching herself at Hibiya. Her face was hot and her eyes hazy. She knew what she had to do.

“Hibiya!” She couldn’t help but scream in desperation, in absolute fear. Not again.  _ Please _ not again.

Time around them seemed to slow. She watched as his eyes moved from the disaster above them to her own. As his expression shifted from pained acceptance to absolute horror. His eyes widened, his mouth opened to scream, his arms moving to stop her. 

She forced herself to smile. If Hibiya saw her smile, he’d know she’d be alright. Surely he wouldn’t look as terrified if he saw she was okay. That was the last thing she wanted. 

Hiyori's hands hit Hibiya's chest and knocked him backward onto the cement floor. Their throats went raw with the sound of their screams. Metal clattered and pierced through flesh, thudding and reverberating against the floor. The sidewalk tiles cracked and turned red. 

The cicadas sung, the crows cheered, the wind chimes laughed, and the heat from the summer’s haze mocked them. 

**********

A guttural scream ripped from Hiyori’s mouth as she bent forwards in pain. Her hands gripped her body in desperation, the lingering feeling of being impaled haunting her. She sat wide-eyed and horrified, breathing heavily as tears began to form around her eyes. 

She sat there, weeping silently as she waited for her phantom pains to subside. This had never happened before, but then again, she had never been the one to die before. 

Eventually, she found the strength to let go, to let her head look up and her hands rest at her sides. 

She was in her borrowed room, her deceased niece Ayano’s room she believed. The comforter was rumpled by her sudden movement, but besides that, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Her anxiety writhed. 

Did that not work? Did dying not work? Would she have to save Hibiya tomorrow all over again? The thoughts made her body go red and hot with anger. She hated this, she couldn’t take it anymore.

She threw the comforter off of herself and got up, pounding over to her phone. She had to know what day it was, she  _ had to _ .

She turned it on.

00:00

Friday, August 15th

“What?” 

Hiyori turned her phone off then turned it back on again as pure confusion overtook her. The time on screen didn’t change; the date didn’t either. She did it another three times just in case.

“This makes no sense,” she mumbled, holding her head in her empty hand. She found herself rolling her eyes as if insulting herself. Nothing has been making sense for what feels like years, so really she should be less surprised that her phone’s stuck at midnight. 

But… this has never happened before. Usually, when she wakes up again, it’s the 14th, never the 15th. Why was it the 15th already? And why was time telling her it’s midnight instead of noon?

Hiyori huffed, frustrated, and set her phone down. Maybe it was just a glitch, maybe Hibiya’s phone was fine and hers was just weird because she died this time. Yeah, that made sense. Maybe hell was just fucking with her a bit, just for the variety of it all.

Hiyori got dressed, putting on the same dreaded clothes she always wore on the 15th, and put her phone into her dress pocket. It wasn’t like she had the energy to change, anyway. Nothing in her wardrobe matched the color of Hibiya’s blood.

She pushed the door open, it’s creak echoing into the silent house. Stepping loudly and frustrated into the hallway, she found herself walking to Hibiya’s room. She stopped in front of his door, furrowing her brows. Why was she here again? She knew Hibiya always woke up before her, he should be in the kitchen making breakfast as usual. However…

She stood silently, cocking her head to the side. Without her footsteps, the silence of the Tateyama residence became apparent. It reached out and grabbed her, locking her feet into place.

Hibiya was not in the kitchen making breakfast. The TV was not on. Konoha was not messing with the refrigerator. Her weird “uncle” was not bumbling about his room. The only sounds were Hiyori’s own uneasy breathing and the subtle creaking of the house. 

She reached hesitantly for the doorknob before she stopped and curled her hand into a loose fist. She knocked lightly on Hibiya’s door.

“Hello? Hey, I’m coming in, okay?” She announced, allowing her usual bossy tone to slip into her voice. She waited a moment to see if he would respond.

Silence. 

Hiyori let out an annoyed sigh. “You better not be changing or whatever.”

The door creaked as it opened, the light from the hallway illuminating the bedroom Hibiya had borrowed. His bed was hastily undone like he had sprung out of it in a hurry. There were a few items from the desk strewn about the floor and his phone was missing from its usual spot on the bedside table.

Hiyori found herself narrowing her eyes, squinting at the scene, and glancing around, trying to make sense of it all. It was incredibly out of character for him to just leave a mess everywhere. Where could he have gone? And why was it so urgent he didn’t even bother to clean up?

“Hibiya?” She called, much louder than before, into the house. He  _ should _ be here, she didn’t ask him to pick anything up. 

She found herself sighing with relief when she heard footsteps echo throughout the house, but quickly found herself gripping her dress with dread as no voice followed them. She turned around defensively towards the hallway as the realization hit her. 

Konoha’s footsteps were much too clumsy and Hibiya’s made little to no noise at all. These steps belonged to neither of them and her uncle Kenjirou should be at work by now, so there’s no way they could be his. 

She let go of her dress and balled her hands into fists, gritting her teeth as the steps got louder. She rushed out into the hallway and threw a punch forwards, hitting thin air.

A surprised yelp rang through the hallway, causing Hiyori to scream in fear and launch herself backward into Hibiya’s room. She landed on her butt and scuttled back a little more, just in case. 

The person stood in the doorway, their figure obscured by the lack of light in the bedroom. From the backlight of the hallway behind them, she could tell the person had brown hair and was probably wearing a skirt of some kind. 

Hiyori narrowed her eyes.

“Who are you?” She demanded from her place on the floor. She might be at this person’s feet but there was no way she,  _ the  _ Hiyori Asahina, would embarrass herself any longer. She had to regain some sort of respect.

The figure took a few steps into the room and bent down, extending a hand out to Hiyori. Their appearance came into focus as they met eye level. 

“I’m Ayano Tateyama. I’m sorry I scared you,” the girl answered meekly.

Hiyori moved to grab her hand, then hesitated. 

“Ayano?” She asked, confused. She retracted her hand, frowning and squinting at the taller girl. “What do you  _ mean _ Ayano?” 

She got up onto her feet and glared down at her. “Ayano’s  _ dead _ ,” she spat. “She died two years ago. I never even  _ met _ her. There’s no way you’re Ayano.”

“I am! I promise.” The girl sounded genuinely upset. She got up and dusted off her skirt, balling her hands into weary fists in front of her. “Is there any way I can prove it to you?”

Hiyori thought, keeping her sharp gaze on the taller girl. She sure did  _ look _ like the photos of Ayano Kenjirou kept around the house, however, why would she be  _ here? _ Wherever  _ here _ is. Even if she asked the stranger a question, it's not like she knew enough about her to confirm or deny. She only really knew one thing.

“How did you die?” She offered. It was the best she had, and she figured if a stranger broke into the house and was trying to impersonate one of the girls in the family photos, they wouldn’t know that much. 

“I-...” The girl started. Her whole body seemed to droop and she had slid her hands up to grasp her elbows. “I killed myself. I jumped off my school’s roof.” She looked up sheepishly at her. “See? I’m stuck wearing my uniform. I don’t have anything else to wear.”

Hiyori looked down at Ayano’s feet, involuntarily letting out a slight wince. “Then… You  _ are _ dead,” she murmured. She looked back up to find Ayano looking expectantly at her. “Wait, am  _ I _ dead? Did I die that time? Well- I know I died but did I  _ die  _ die, like for real?”

Ayano looked away for a moment, her lips forming a tight thin line. She looked back, her expression softening. She nodded once, seemingly too uncomfortable to speak.

Hiyori froze, her eyebrows shooting up and her mouth falling open ever so slightly. It worked. It worked! Oh my god, it worked! Hibiya wouldn’t have to die anymore, right? Everything was okay now? She had finally stopped it?

She let out a small chuckle, and then a loud, shaky laugh. “Where’s Hibiya?” She asked, relief flooding her voice. “I have to find him. He needs to know it’s okay.”

“Hibiya?” Ayano asked. “Who’s that? You called out to him earlier.”

“He’s my friend,” Hiyori explained, her expression dropping after a moment. “At least, I hope he is.” 

She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek as if disciplining a misbehaving dog. She couldn’t start thinking about that again. 

“He’s been with me this whole time. He died too, however long ago that was. He should be here as well, right?”

Ayano’s brows furrowed. She opened her mouth and she watched as nothing came out. Ayano looked at her with the same sad and helpless expression you would use to watch an injured animal. It made Hiyori inexplicably  _ angry _ . 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She snapped. Her hands balled into fists. “Where’s Hibiya? Where’s my friend?”

“He’s not here,” Ayano explained. Her voice trembled like she was going to cry from just watching her. 

Hiyori would’ve preferred cradling his limp body in her arms to this. 


End file.
